Old School Essentials

If you remember my reviews of B/X Essentials, Old School Essentials (OSE) is the same game, only they have taken things to another level with some very high quality books with stitched bindings. It is fun to see the move towards quality bindings and books that last in the indie RPG scene, this and Zweihander have me literally drooling over the lay flat, high quality bindings, and bookmark ribbons.

POD print quality is good and I will take what I can get for out-of-print titles, but to see some real love of the book-making process with these games means we will have books that can be passed down and used heavily without fear of losing them. Shout out to the companies doing this and I will support you.

I have a near complete collection of the original paperback B/X Essentials books (missing treasure), and these are some of the best laid out books in the indie genre, and many people have made this game their go-to system. These are so easy to reference with a lot of effort put into:

• Bullet pointing lists.
• Creating numbered lists to follow
• Keeping concepts to one or two facing pages.
• Consistent use of styles and bold section titles for clarity.
• A logical progression of game concepts.

If you want a master class in how to lay out a RPG so it is clear and easy you really can't do much better than this. Not that every game has to copy this format, since being unique is cool, but a couple nods towards organization and clarity go a long way. I am reminded of the monster descriptions in the HARP monsters book where they would start halfway down a page and end halfway down the next page in the book, on the back side of the paper. Why? Why did you do that? Page breaks are your friends! Put some art in there to fill!

This game is the complete opposite. Information placed on pages or facing pages, and everything is clear and easy to find. I love this attention to detail and clarity.

...vs. Labyrinth Lord?

One thing I love about the OSR world is you can switch back and forth between games and you are not really participating in system wars. Everything is similar, and system preference is just to taste and what you like. Both of these games are very cool (and I will give a nod to Dungeon Crawl Classics and Basic Fantasy too for being some of the beloved fan favs), and there is no real versus here with any of them.

There are differences. This is more original B/X inspired with optional add-ons for advanced features, where Labyrinth Lord is like a B/X and AD&D mashup. Now, Labyrinth Lord is how my original D&D game went, with all sorts of silly stuff getting pulled into my original campaign, so I have a huge love and soft spot for that game since it mimics "how we played" back in the day.

I do like Labyrinth Lord's inclusion of monsters inspired by the AD&D Monster Manual. That for me is a key point to have the classic demons and devils present, because those are invaluable bad guys, boss monsters, and a sign that when they show up - something is seriously wrong and the high level characters are needed desperately because the end of the world is at stake here.

Like a Lego Set

OSE is very cool as a bin full of building blocks that you can play as-is, add onto, or generally do what you want with it. I love it too, and there is room for every type of game at the table. This is a more focused rules set with a tighter core of rules, and I appreciate an experience like that since the game gets to be like a classic Heroquest or Monopoly type experience. I love games where everything works together well, is clear, and you can play it from your head.

This? This I can play from my head. If I need to reference something it is a one or two page glance and I am back playing. This is very much like an iPhone experience in RPG form, while it is nice to have tons of features and extra functions - what is the core of what I need to have fun? But unlike the iPhone analogy, this is very much like Android in its ultimate expand-ability. But the design theory is there, keep it simple, clear, and on one or two pages.

This game is also easily expandable, though the community support versus Labyrinth Lord feels somewhat less due to this game being newer. That said, with a little work almost everything B/X is easily usable with a few tweaks here and there. You could base an entirely new game, science fantasy, modern, whatever, off the core rules and everything just works.

Building Tomorrow

It is great to see this game flourishing. The B/X Community is building a tomorrow based on the past that will always be around, work together, and support the creation of ideas and games that were only dreams from the players and game master of the world. I can't wait for my printed copy, and I have the PDF to pour over until that comes. an excellent set of rules and my highest recommendation.

When my printed copy comes we will do a full flip through and review. Until then, this is one I eagerly await.